The String that Holds You Here
by darksideofnight
Summary: Aster hoped above anything else that his brother would live. But, hope is not enough to grasp at a life that is held only by a string. AU
1. Chapter 1

The once energetic five year old lay unmoving on the hospital bed. His tiny hands clenched and unclenched at the sheets covering him, his white hair matted to his forehead with sweat. Thanks to his skin's pallor, and the dark circles under his eyes, the doctors seemed to have given up all hope.

Aster knew better, though. He would always, always hold onto hope. He was Jack's big brother, and he knew that he could never give up on his precious baby brother.

So far, it had paid off. The small boy's heart condition should've killed him before he reached age two. Let alone age five. But now, Aster didn't know what to do.

The tall boy was not one to cry, but for Jack, he couldn't hold back the tears building in his eyes as he watched the child struggle and cling to life. He looked like a ghost, in his hospital gown, with the IV stuck in his arm. It scared his brother.

Unexpectedly, the dying boy rolled over, vivid blue eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at the brunette.

"Aster, I wanna sleep now..." The older gave the biggest smile he could muster, holding down sobs for the same of his brother's reassurance.

"T-that's okay...I-if you're tired, then you can go to sleep. I'll sit here with you." Dark eyes never wavered.

"I'm glad. I don't wanna be alone today." Aster squeezed the tiny hand offered to him, and for the first time since they'd arrived at the hospital, the boy's pale lips stretched into a genuine smile. "Nighty-night, Aster." He didn't say anything to that, and the boy was asleep soon after. Aster was awoken pulled out of anxious reverie by the final, continuous beep.

"I love you, little brother."

Days later, snow gathered in the cemetery as the miniature casket was lowered into the ground. A full moon shown brightly overhead, and the air was frigidly cold for mid-May. Aster's face didn't change from a blank, austere, expression. Others cried, but he blocked them out, sitting stonily as the service progressed.

He was turning back to the mausoleum when he saw something strange. There was someone leaning on the stone structure...a short someone, with silver-white hair and blue eyes, wearing a hospital gown. It was Jack. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, certain he was seeing things. Sure enough, when he looked again, the person was gone. And he never saw his dead brother again.

He wasn't sure if the mirage had simply forgotten to appear to him. But he never forgot, because, like hope, he would always hold onto the suspicion that there really had been someone there that night...

A/N: so yeah...AU where jack and bunny are siblings. Jack died. Sorry. Review please! And, if anyone's reading Movie Spin Offs, that should be updated this week...


	2. The Boy with Empty Thoughts

The newly dead child stared intently at the tall brown haired boy at the cemetery. The latter stood among many people all dressed in black, though the dead boy paid them no mind. He was certain he knew the brunette from somewhere...he could remember nothing of what happened before he appeared here, though. Who was that person? His memory was blank, except for this one suspicion that he knew the stranger. He leaned on the mausoleum, fern frost patterns weaving across the stone. Was that normal?

He tugged lightly at the red IV which still stuck out of his arm. Until today, it had tethered him to the white, cold room that he had woken up inside. It was only now that that wooden box was being put in the ground that he could freely move.

The boy he'd been watching turned to look at him. He looked shocked, and turned away again. The silver haired boy's throat tightened, and the wind swept him up in a comforting embrace, for which he was grateful. Pushing the stranger out of his mind, he laughed and spun in the air as snow twirled around him.

Only later did he realize that no one could see him. It wasn't just those people at the graveyard. That older boy had been the only one. And when he went back to find the green eyed human again, he couldn't see the hospital gown clad spirit, either.

He cried like the child he was, when he realized how utterly alone he was.

A/N: I wasn't planning to do more with this, but I like the AU. Sorry if the thing with Jack's memory is weird, obviously, in canon he didn't forget everything, he knew English, and he knew how to greet people, so his mind couldn't have been completely wiped.


End file.
